St. Louis doesn't have a patio district. It has patio neighborhoods, and they don't look anything alike.
Soulard, the old French quarter, hides its outdoor space behind brick — walled gardens you don't know are there until you're standing in one. Lafayette Square goes up instead, because the views are worth it. Downtown puts the patio on the sidewalk and a band on it.
Here are four that are genuinely worth planning an evening around, what makes each one different, and the one that doesn't shut down in November.
John D. McGurk's Irish Pub and Garden
1200 Russell Blvd, Soulard
The garden behind McGurk's runs to more than 15,000 square feet across three terraces, with a fountain and a waterfall in it. That is not a courtyard with some tables pushed outside. That is a park with a bar attached.
It is also the answer most people in this city give first. Of the 3,726 Google reviews McGurk's has collected, 233 of them mention the patio by name — people don't do that for ordinary outdoor seating.
Go on a night with live Irish music, and go early. Three terraces sounds like a lot of room until you're looking for two seats.
Molly's in Soulard
816 Geyer Ave, Soulard
Molly's runs a courtyard patio and a separate bar out in it, which changes the whole feel of the place — you're not waiting on a server to cross the yard, you're standing at a bar that happens to be outdoors. During happy hour, oysters are $2 at that bar and that bar only.
Dogs are welcome on the bar side. Not at the tables, and they're straight about why: table service and dogs don't mix well, so they picked one.
This is also the one on this list that treats patio season as a year-round proposition rather than a summer one. More on that below.
The Bellwether
1419 Carroll St, Lafayette Square
Two outdoor spaces, and they're not interchangeable. There's a patio at ground level, and there's a rooftop terrace looking back at the city — which is rare in Lafayette Square and rarer still anywhere in this city that isn't a hotel.
It's the smallest room on this list by review count and the one that feels most like somebody's project rather than an institution. Book the roof, not the patio, and go early — the kitchen shuts earlier here than at the rest of this list.
Broadway Oyster Bar
736 S Broadway, Downtown
Cajun food, and live music every night — not Fridays and Saturdays, every night. Most places that call themselves a music venue book a band twice a week. The patio here is where you want to be sitting for it.
With 8,902 Google reviews it's the most-reviewed patio on this list by a wide margin, which means two things: it's very good, and you will not be sitting there alone. Come for the volume, not for a quiet conversation.
Which of these works in November
Most St. Louis patios close somewhere around the middle of October and reopen in March. That's the honest answer, and it's why "best patios" is a spring search in this city.
Of the four here, Molly's in Soulard is the one that stays open — they advertise patio season as year round rather than stacking the furniture when the weather turns. Worth a call before you go in January to ask what they've got running that week, because year round and comfortable are two different promises.
If you're looking specifically for somewhere outdoors in December, that's your short list, and it's short.
A practical note on timing
Patio season here starts earlier than people expect. Searches for St. Louis patios climb from March and hold through June, fall off through the worst of the summer heat, then come back in September — which matches how the city actually eats outside. Spring and early autumn are the good weeks.
Weekday evenings are the trick. The same garden that has a forty-minute wait on Saturday has open tables on a Tuesday.
We're Optimal Outdoor Oasis. We sell the structures that keep outdoor spaces usable when the weather turns — pergolas, gazebos, fire pits and heaters — mostly to families building something permanent in their own backyards. We put these city guides together because we spend a lot of time looking at what makes an outdoor space work, and the places on this list have already worked it out.
Run a patio that belongs on this list? Tell us about it — 1 800 914 0074, or text 352 274 6387.